HOW TO WRITE THE PERFECT BLOG POST

LEARN HOW STRUCTURING YOUR POST YIELDS THE BEST RESULTS

MODEDAWEB - HOW TO WRITE THE PERFECT BLOG POST

Many times the question arises, just how to write the perfect blog post? For me that’s

an impossible question to answer as the post can only be perfect to the reader who is

digesting the piece of content you’ve decided to distribute.

What you can do however, is devise a structure that will enable you to properly work

out whom the post is targeted at, using buyer personas. If you haven’t established your

buyer personas then down tools and start researching those. A great tool and template

resource can be found here and here.

Image courtesy of Hubspot

Introduction

MODEDAWEB - HOW TO WRITE THE PERFECT BLOG POST

What are they?Buyer Personas are profiles of your ideal customers based on research generated on

your current customer/client base. Ideally you should have several personas for your

business, based on your current client’s backgrounds, businesses or lifestyles and

decision making processes. This is why if you haven’t already you should document

where possible as much of the buying process of each client as possible. This will give

you a clear understanding of who they are, why they required your product or service

and how long the buying cycle took from start to finish.

Questions to ask yourselfWhat did your product or service provide

a solution for? Were you the first and only

option, how did that customer end up at

your door? What is it about your business

that actually sealed the deal for this client?

The more information you know about

your customer base, the better your

content offering can be.

BUYER PERSONAS

?

MODEDAWEB - HOW TO WRITE THE PERFECT BLOG POST

So you’ve researched your client base and created your personas, well where do you

go from there? Simple, the next stage of any good structure is to work out what your

persona will take away from this post. Ultimately, all blog posts are educational with a

long term sales view so there are a few options for this:

1. What stage of the sales funnel does this article fall into? Unsure, check here.

2. What is the point of this post? To drive traffic to another post? Talk about a new

product or service? A content post to drive registrations for an ebook or webinar?

Once this is clarified you are starting to establish a clear and strategic approach to

your blogging activity.

POSITION YOUR POST

MODEDAWEB - HOW TO WRITE THE PERFECT BLOG POST

The first thing to do is make sure the subject or topic of your blog post genuinely

interests you or you are experienced in that subject matter. Writing a post because you

think it will get readers in a subject you have limited knowledge in will simply show you

have limited knowledge and is counter-productive.

There are some great tools around the web available to help you out;

Hubspot have a good tool

Portent also have a topic generator

Inbound Now has idea generator

And so does content forest

THE TOPIC

MODEDAWEB - HOW TO WRITE THE PERFECT BLOG POST

OUTLINE YOUR BLOG POST STRUCTURE

Now you’ve done the hard part, you need to look at how your post will lay out. To get

into good habits lets break this down into three parts:

The Introduction

The body

The conclusion

MODEDAWEB - HOW TO WRITE THE PERFECT BLOG POST

IntroductionThe introduction is where you will set the stage for what this

article will teach your reader. Be clear and concise at this

stage. At this stage you want to establish credibility and build a

relationship with the reader to keep their interest. Conversely,

you could leave this part until after you have written the body of

the text to really sell the reader your following content. Use bullet

points to list the points you want to convey in this part of the

content.

BodyThe body really has to deliver on whatever you explained to the

reader in the introduction. The body can consist of paragraphs,

bullet points and or numbered lists. Whatever is suitable for this

particular post is what will work. Ensure that your body content is

clear, concise and easy to follow whilst also educational. Make a

list of bullet points on what this text section has to deliver so your

message is clear and easy to understand.

Conclusion/SummaryThis is where you sign off on the key message that the blog post

was written to discuss. You need to emphasise the message in a

summary style so that the reader really understands the point and

the context that was used to drive that home. To get maximum

return, again list the points this text section has to fulfil and use

this to draft an excellent conclusion or closing statement.

Your Structure

01

02

03

MODEDAWEB - HOW TO WRITE THE PERFECT BLOG POST

RESEARCH

Any written copy worth reading will be heavily researched. That means you should

spend time actively looking for external sites that support or back up your chosen

content. Look for reputable sites so that when you link copy to those sites, you get the

added benefit of the inbound/outbound links. A well-researched piece should always

provide the writer with a broader knowledge and opinion of the chosen subject matter.

If you have don’t have copy on your blog already at this stage then link to external sites,

where you have copy to support your new post, link to that.

Research

Blogs

Your posts

Video

Ebooks

News

Infographics

Webinars

Industry Publications

MODEDAWEB - HOW TO WRITE THE PERFECT BLOG POST

The tools that have been mentioned in the topic section will definitely generate ideas

for your content subject title and you can adopt any of the suggestions… for now!

The title of your blog post should always be something that is a work in progress until

just before you optimise the article for SEO purposes. Remember, the reason we leave

the SEO until last is because you are writing for an audience, you never set out with

the SEO in mind first.

CHOOSE YOUR TITLE

MODEDAWEB - HOW TO WRITE THE PERFECT BLOG POST

FINALISE THE TITLE

By now you should have a well written article just about ready to post on your blog,

however it’s time to revisit the working title you created earlier and see if that title is the

most suitable for the subject and the content you’ve just produced.

If you are struggling to write a captivating title check out this great article by Hubspot

“How to write kick ass blog titles”

Remember, the title of the article will count somewhat towards what the SEO ranking will

be so at this point your keywords will come into play. If you aren’t really sure how your

keywords can be chosen, there is a great tool available.

MODEDAWEB - HOW TO WRITE THE PERFECT BLOG POST

EDIT EDIT AND EDIT AGAIN!

Now you are ready to copy your post and paste it onto your blogging platform, have you

chosen your supporting images? Have you ensured you have all your sub headings in

the right place and all your grammar has been spell checked for the language you post

in? You wouldn’t want US English spellings in the UK and vice versa.

Always use a second pair of eyes, if you work in a marketing department or are a sole

trader, just get a colleague or family member to read it back to you, it’s better to do it

pre post than post your post!

Nearly DONE Almost ADD THAT IN

REDRAFT IT HMMMMM UNDO it all

MODEDAWEB - HOW TO WRITE THE PERFECT BLOG POST

COPY AND PASTE YOUR POST

Now you can paste your copy into your platform, some platforms will lose your styling

so never just cut and paste so you can reformat your post quite quickly with bold text,

highlights, underlines etc.

MODEDAWEB - HOW TO WRITE THE PERFECT BLOG POST

CHOOSE A MAIN IMAGE

Now the final piece of your puzzle. You need to choose a very relevant and contextual

image that will help sell your article to your potential readers. This isn’t the time to

scrimp on effort, if you don’t have your own images then look to platforms like

istockphoto.com

gettyimages.co.uk

https://bootstrapbay.com/blog/free-stock-photos/

shutterstock.com

These are only a few and I’m not affiliated to any of the sites mentioned in any way, it’s

always your choice to find your own image sources but ensure you give credit where

credit is requested or due.

In summary, when planning on how to write the perfect blog post…which I may say

might just about be impossible, structure your post to gain maximum effect from it. Like

most aspects of marketing, you need to plan well and look long term. Look past this

one post into a chain of posts to ensure the message you intend to send will resonate

throughout your content strategy at all times. Hopefully this will help you along the way!

MODEDAWEB - HOW TO WRITE THE PERFECT BLOG POST

Good talk, see you out there

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